Month: March 2019

A relatively large asteroid designated 2019 FC1 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.27 LD / 0.00069 (103 222 km / 64 132 miles) on March 28, 2019. This is the largest known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance so far this year. Asteroid 2019 FC1 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids.

18 children were injured after a strong dust devil hit a playground and blew away a trampoline in Yucheng County, China’s central Henan Province. The twister touched ground around 15:00 LD, March 31, 2019. All injured have been rushed to a hospital. Featured image credit: CCTV Register/become a supporter Your support is crucial for our survival.

Greek poet Simonides of Ceos developed a groundbreaking way of improving your memory over 2000 years ago. Known as “memory palace” the technique is still used today and according to a recent study it can benefit anyone. 30-minutes a day can have dramatic effects on your memory. Author of the study Martin Dresler, assistant professor

A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.2 hit near the coast of Ecuador at 07:04 UTC on March 31, 2019. The agency is reporting a depth of 18.5 km (11.5 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.2 at a depth 40 km (24.8 miles). IGEPN is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 3

The mysterious falling object spotted close to a secretive US army base has left US Air Force officials scrambling for an answer. Shocking footage taken this week showed a mysterious object plunging towards the ground with a trial of smoke behind it. The video clip also shows what looks like a light guiding its way

Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into a shallow sea near Mexico. The impact carved out a 90-mile-wide crater and flung mountains of earth into space. Earthbound debris fell to the planet in droplets of molten rock and glass. Ancient fish caught glass blobs in their gills as they swam, gape-mouthed, beneath

Back in May 2018, the Cheyenne, Wyoming tornado hurled cows through the air. Here’s the video: Reed Timmer explains: “Large, strong tornado touches down as I hook-slice through baseball hail and then retrogrades west toward my position. Rental Chevy equinox I was in had a flat tire and I had to drive on the rim

A grave dating back to early medieval Italy is a sad testament to the horrors of medicine in the Dark Ages. The skeletal remains of a young woman were found with the skeleton of a foetus between her thighs – and a hole in her skull researchers have determined was likely the result of a

Paleontologists have unearthed the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever discovered, researchers say. The massive predator, nicknamed “Scotty,” was about 42 feet long and likely weighed more than 9.7 tons. Not only is the massive specimen the biggest T. rex ever found, it’s also larger than all other carnivorous dinosaurs. Paleontologists discover ‘Scotty,’ the world’s largest

A hail storm that ripped through an avocado orchard in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales last week has destroyed an estimated 4 million avocados. Aussie Orchards’ managing director Colin Foyster said 80 per cent of the fruit on the 12,000 trees at the Pretty Gully farm was knocked off and onto the ground.

A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.1 hit New Britain, Papua New Guinea at 11:20 UTC on March 30, 2019. The agency is reporting a depth of 57.2 km (35.5 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.2 at a depth of 65 km (40.4 miles). The epicenter was located 106 km (66 miles)

The National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred) raised its alert for the Popocatépetl volcano from yellow Phase 2 to yellow Phase 3 due to increased volcanic activity – the highest warning level before Red Alert on March 28, 2019. Popocatepetl erupts strongly on March 28, 2019. via Youtube video El Popo, as the volcano located in

Angela Merkel, as German Chancellor, is used to answering quick-fire questions under pressure. However, it seemed she was not playing along at home when her Christian Democrat party-member needed her help on a tricky Who Wants to Be A Millionaire question. In 2014, her political ally Wolfgang Bosbach tried to phone the chancellor twice when he

These days we have more information at our fingertips than ever before, so it’s a real puzzle why so many people insist on rejecting the facts. Maybe the answer is: we don’t know how a fact comes to be. A new survey from the Pew Research Center has found that many Americans cannot recognise

The natural world is a strange and wonderful place. But sometimes biologists come across something that is just… odd. Really, really odd. Case in point: this peculiar arachnid photographed by natural scientist Andreas Kay in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest in July 2017. By all appearances, it looks like it has the tiny head of a black

Humans will always make the final decision on whether armed robots can shoot, according to a statement by the US Department of Defense. Their clarification comes amid fears about a new advanced targeting system, known as ATLAS, that will use artificial intelligence in combat vehicles to target and execute threats. While the public may

When a person dies, cremation is an increasingly popular option. The practice eclipsed burials in the US in 2015 and is expected to make up more than half of all body disposals by 2020, according to the Cremation Association of North America. But instead of storing a loved one’s cremains in an urn or

The design for SpaceX’s Starship (aka. Big Falcon Rocket) is really starting to come together! Over the holidays, sections of the Starship Hopper (a miniature version of the Starship) were photographed being put together at the company’s South Texas Launch Site. By mid-January, the parts were fully-integrated, forming the body of the stainless-steel prototype

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has raised the alert status of Taal volcano from Alert Level 0 to Alert Level 1 (abnormal) on March 28, 2019. The last eruption of this volcano took place in 1977. Powerful pyroclastic flows and surges from historical eruptions have caused many fatalities. There has been a recent change in

The UFO claim was made by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) following a submitted witness report. A Scottish UFO witness claims to have seen an unidentified flying object of possible extraterrestrial origin last year. The MUFON report, dubbed Case 89841, states the witness saw the UFO on January 24, 2018, while indoors and playing the

We just got some massive news in the ongoing drive to switch to renewable energy: scientists have identified 530,000 sites worldwide suitable for pumped-hydro energy storage, capable of storing more than enough energy to power the entire planet. Pumped-hydro is one of the best technologies we have for storing intermittent renewable energy, such as

Self-proclaimed time traveller Jason Quitt discussed the horrors of witnessing a “great war” between alien races, forcing mankind to change the world order. Quitt also reported encountering a technologically advanced city where inhabitants could communicate with one another and even objects, telepathically. The self-proclaimed multi-dimensional time traveller made the startling revelation on this week’s Coast-to-Coast

A bright fireball was seen above Ashokan Reservoir, NY at 10:13 UTC on March 28, 2019 (18:13 EST). The event lasted several seconds. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 261 reports by 12:00 UTC, March 29, mainly from Connecticut and Pennslyvania. Eyewitness reports also came from Washington DC, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New York,

Today, Christina Koch and Anne McClain were scheduled to perform the first all-female spacewalk together on the ISS. NASA cancelled the plan last minute though, due to a lack of spacesuits of the right sizes, replacing Ms McClain with Nick Hague, in a move that has sparked controversy. After the event, a number of conspiracy theories have emerged

Feeling down in the dumps? If you want to stop wallowing in your own misery, new research suggests that the best method is to stop focusing on yourself and think kind thoughts about other people instead. Yes, it sounds like the PSA at the end of a children’s show, but among the methods tested

By now, you may have already seen some of the ‘noisy GIFs’ floating around the internet. They don’t actually contain any sounds, but plenty of people seem to nonetheless be able to ‘hear’ the noise produced in the image. The skipping powerlines is definitely the most popular one we’ve seen, but you might also be

Two European crows that look quite different from each other are actually diverging from a single species, right before our eyes. In Western Europe, it’s the inky-black carrion crow (Corvus corone). In the east, the grey hooded crow (C. cornix). They overlap in a very narrow zone running along the River Elbe in Germany,

A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.2 hit east of Kuril Islands, Russia at 22:06 UTC on March 28, 2019. The agency is reporting a depth of 9 km (5.6 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.1 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicenter was located 267 km (166 miles) ESE

It started off as an enigma. Biologists at field sites around the world reported that frogs had simply disappeared. Costa Rica, 1987: the golden toad, missing. Australia, 1979: the gastric brooding frog, gone. In Ecuador, Arthur’s stubfoot toad was last seen in 1988. By 1990, cases of unexplained frog declines were piling up. These

In space, no one can hear an asteroid scream. But astronomers just used the Hubble telescope to see one destroying itself. A 2.5-mile-wide (4 kilometer wide) asteroid called 6478 Gault was first discovered in 1988, and it seemed like many of the other 800,000 known space rocks. But in January, astronomers saw something strange

Forget mutant turtles. Kangaroo rats are the true ninjas of the animal kingdom. A series of four high-speed videos has recently captured these little fighters flipping and kicking in mid-air as they artfully dance around their arch nemesis, the hungry sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes). It’s a battle between two extreme athletes, and the result is a

A peculiar new paper, published in a little-known scientific journal, has the tabloids stirred up about the possibility of life on Mars. According to this paper, an international team of scientists are now claiming to have found evidence of ‘mushrooms’ growing on the surface of the Red Planet. The ‘evidence’ is primarily based on

Mexican authorities have raised the alert level for Popocatepetl volcano from Yellow Phase 2 to Yellow Phase 3 on March 28, 2019. The decision was made due to increased activity observed in recent days, possible magma expulsion and explosions of increased intensity. Over the past 24 hours, Popocatepetl monitoring network detected 61 exhalations, accompanied by water

Malham Salt Cave near the southern tip of Israel’s Dead Sea is a labyrinthian maze of dark passageways, tunnels and salt spires. The ancient cave under the biblical Mount Sodom has now also been dubbed the world’s longest salt cave, following an extensive mapping of its inner network. Until now, the coveted titled was held

A group of Christians are pointing to passages in the Bible which feel eerily familiar in today’s world, and could be a sign of the beginning of the end. The first such example being pointed at by Christian conspiracy theorists is the social credit system which has been established in China. As part of the

After browsing through old NASA satellite images, one UFO hunter believes he has spotted evidence of an alien base on the moon. The apparent base looks to have a huge circular dome in its centre with two connecting structures on either side. The image from NASA is from 2014, and prominent conspiracy theorist Scott C

Wildfires are burning in northern Portugal fueled by strong winds and unexpectedly high temperatures (28 °C / 82.4 °F) several months before expected. Wildfire alert was issued Tuesday evening, March 26, prohibiting farmers from using slash-and-burn methods, requiring employers to authorize absences for workers who serve as volunteer firefighters, and placing more police forces on standby to act

10 million people in Afghanistan (population 35 million) are facing severe acute food insecurity following 3 years of drought and recent floods. Three years of drought have contributed to massive crop failure, economic hardship, hunger and loss of life, forcing 266 000 people from their homes, Afghan Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of Red Cross

It starts on a single limb. The leaves grow small, and begin to curl, turning a pale yellow or reddish colour. Within weeks, another apple tree is dead. But that’s not the end of it. Adjacent trees in the orchard often begin to show the same thing. Again, the symptoms may start on a single

Everything you see around you is made up of elementary particles called quarks and leptons, which can combine to form bigger particles such as protons or atoms. But that doesn’t make them boring – these subatomic particles can also combine in exotic ways we’ve never spotted. Now CERN’s LHCb collaboration has announced the discovery

An earthquake swarm that started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone on Saturday, March 23, 2019 is still ongoing and the number of earthquakes has increased on March 27, the Icelandic Met Office reported 22:40 UTC, March 27. The quakes are located 6 km (3.7 miles) southwest of the town of Kópasker. A magnitude 4.2 earthquake was reported at

MH370 disappeared without a trace on March 8 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Jeff Wise, author of The Plane That Wasn’t There, said a huge surprise for investigators was that the satcom was turned off after the plane initially disappeared, but then switched back on again. At

Scorching temperatures of 880 degrees Celsius. Tempestuous clouds of iron and dust that envelop the entire planet in a global storm. Such are the conditions on HR 8799e, an exoplanet 129 light-years away – and the first to be studied directly using a technique called optical interferometry. It’s thanks to applying this technique that

Early this morning, India launched a missile toward space, struck an Earth-orbiting satellite, and destroyed the spacecraft. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a televised address shortly after the launch to declare the anti-satellite, or ASAT, test a success. He praised the manoeuvre, called “Mission Shakti”, as “an unprecedented achievement” that registers India as “a

The super arrogant seem to like the super bloom. Park officials in California’s Antelope Valley, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, said Tuesday that in recent days someone landed a helicopter in a field of poppies – part of the massive bloom unfolding across the state – and then began a hike.